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Rotational Accelerometer

Technical Information

Catalogue No: C0096
Category: Flight Control
Object Type: Sensor/Transducer
Object Name: Rotational Accelerometer
Part No: ?
Serial No: ?
Manufacturer: Elliott Bros (London) Ltd
Division: Unknown
Platform(s):
Year of Manufacture: 1955
Dimensions: Width (mm): 60
Height (mm): 24
Depth (mm): 28
Weight (g): 43
Location: 30-Drawer Unit 01 on Rack RAA09 [Main Store]
Inscription(s):

None

Notes:

This item was in the Elliott Collection Ref: 2011

Accelerometers are electromechanical devices that will measure acceleration forces. These forces may be static, like the constant force of gravity, or they could be dynamic - caused by moving or vibrating the accelerometer. By measuring the amount of static acceleration due to gravity, you can find out the angle the device is tilted at with respect to the earth. By sensing the amount of dynamic acceleration, you can analyse the way the device is moving.

This item is a very early design attributed to Professor Jablonski (see ODMI0279 for background on Prof Jablonski). The Accelerometer is stated to have a natural frequency range of 200Hz but the actual technology within the device is not currently known. The earliest accelerometer designs used resistance strain gauges but the work on piezoelectric accelerometers was well established by the early 1950s. Professor Jablonski joined Elliotts in 1953, so the Accelerometer will date from later than this.

Inspection of the this device's mechanism indicates that it probably senses rotational acceleration with a magnetic bar on a torsion mount within a magnetic frame with some sensing &/or force feedback coils.

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